The Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 is a fine example of the increasingly rare premium Android tablet, but it's not the best small-screen value.

The Galaxy Tab 7.7 and Droid Xyboard 8.2 were seen as tweeners in their day, but the 8-inch form factor has since picked up mainstream popularity thanks to devices like the iPad mini. And as phablets start to push the 6-inch barrier, I'm inclined to think that 8-inchers will supplant 7-inchers as the small-screen format of choice. The Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 is just about the ideal size for me—thin, light, and narrow enough to hold with one hand, but still big enough to justify a second device to supplement a smartphone or laptop. It's brimming with features and as fast as they come, but the $399.99 price tag will be a sticking point for consumers used to paying less than $250 for a top-notch Android tablet. The Tab Pro 8.4 is among the best Android tablets you can get, but it just can't match the Editors' Choice winning Nexus 7 on value.

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Design and FeaturesFor better or worse, Samsung has settled on a uniform design language for its Galaxy devices. The Tab Pro 8.4 looks essentially like a stretched out Galaxy Note 3, complete with faux-leather plastic back and faux-chrome trim. I don't mind it so much on the black models, but it looks pretty tacky in white—does pure white leather ever look good? At 8.62 by 5.05 by 0.28 inches (HWD) and 11.67 ounces, the Tab Pro 8.4 is thinner, lighter, and narrower than the iPad mini. I can grasp it securely in one hand and it fits in bigger jacket pockets. Around its edges you'll find a 3.5mm headphone jack, microSD card slot, Volume and Power buttons, and a micro USB port. Samsung stuck with USB 2.0 here instead of the wider, faster USB 3.0 ports on the Note line.

The 8.4-inch, 2,560-by-1,600-pixel LCD is very sharp (359 pixels per inch) and the display gets plenty bright. Viewing angle is wide and colors aren't nearly as saturated as you'll find on the company's AMOLED panels. The screen isn't overly reflective, either, and the maximum brightness is good enough for outdoor use. Contrast is about average and the backlighting tends to make dark backgrounds appear a bit washed out. The side bezels are a hair slimmer than the iPad mini's, but edge palm rejection is almost non-existent—it'll register touches even if only a sliver of your thumb or palm extends beyond the bezel. Below the screen is a physical Home button flanked by capacitive Recent Apps and Back buttons.

This is a Wi-Fi-only tablet with dual-band 802.11b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.0 LE, and GPS support. There's also a built-in infrared blaster for using the Tab Pro as a universal remote. Though the Tab Pro can easily connect to faster 5GHz networks, in side-by-side tests with a Galaxy S4, the Tab Pro routinely turned in slower download and upload speeds when connected to our corporate Wi-Fi network. The Tab Pro averaged closer to 10Mbps down and 15Mbps up while the S4 reached up to 40Mbps down and 40Mbps up.

Inside is a 4,800mAh battery that was good for 6 hours, 25 minutes of video playback with Wi-Fi on and screen brightness set to max. That's a decent showing, but short of the 7 hours, 37 minutes the Nexus 7 turned in on the same test.

Performance and AndroidThe Tab Pro 8.4 is powered by a quad-core 2.3GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor with 2GB RAM. It's the same setup being used in a lot of high-end Android devices right now, and performance doesn't deviate much. Apps open swiftly, graphically intensive games play smoothly, and Web browsing doesn't disappoint. The Tab Pro 8.4 can handle just about anything you throw at it, but using the multi-window function to run apps side by side can cause some slowdowns. Having two browser windows open, for instance, makes both load at a slower clip, while the virtual keyboard can take a moment to load.

Samsung's split-personality Magazine UX makes an appearance on the Tab Pro 8.4, running atop Android 4.4 KitKat. We saw the first iteration of this idea in the Note 10.1 (2014) and got a closer look in the Note Pro 12.2 so head over to that review for a full rundown. Basically, Samsung shoehorned a Flipboard-style UI that runs side-by-side with your standard TouchWiz'd Android. There are tiles that show news updates or widgets like calendar events or email inboxes. I personally think it looks pretty slick, but Android purists will cry foul and even TouchWiz fans might think it looks a bit too much like Windows 8.

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About the Author

Before joining the consumer electronics team at PCMag, Eugene worked at local news station NY1 doing everything from camera work to writing scripts. He grew up in Montclair, New Jersey and graduated from the University of Virginia in 2010. Outside of work Eugene enjoys TV, loud music, and making generally healthy and responsible life choices.

Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4

Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4

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